In the past two days, there has been a question that has been bothering me, we know that the publication of the 1637 "Tiangong Kaiwu" written by Song Yingxing, which includes agriculture, handicrafts, machinery, bricks and tiles, ceramics, papermaking, printing, weapons, gunpowder, textiles, dyeing, salt making, coal mining, oil extraction and other ancient Chinese science and agricultural technology. It is an encyclopedic tome of science and technology, with 123 beautiful illustrations describing the names, shapes, and processes of more than 130 production techniques and tools. However, it is such a science and technology book that blesses the people, but it is listed as "** causing this book to be lost in China for nearly 300 years, which has to be regretted."
In the 16th century, a large number of Western missionaries entered China, saying that they brought many Western scientific and technical books to China. But here are a couple of questions:
First, there were also a large number of scientific and technological books in ancient China, such as the "Examination of Gongji" in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Mo Zhai's "Book of Ink", Shi Kuang's "Book of Birds", "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic" in the first century AD, "Qi Min Yaoshu" by Jia Siqian in the Northern Wei Dynasty, "Wang Zhen's Agricultural Book" by Wang Zhen in the Yuan Dynasty, "Mengxi Bi Tan" by Shen Kuo in the Northern Song Dynasty, "Compendium of Materia Medica" by Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty, and so on. Many of these scientific and technological books have also been introduced to the West, so how much impact have these scientific and technological books had on the West?Why is it rarely mentioned in Western science and technology books?
Second, the missionaries brought back a large number of Chinese books from China to the West. For example, in 1628, when the Italian missionary Bergori returned to Rome, he brought back more than 400 volumes of the missionary works of the missionaries in China, as well as a large number of Chinese books (see picture). Since the missionaries in China orally translated Western science and technology books, then the West also owns the original books of these science and technology books, so why should Bai Ying bring these translated Western science and technology books back to the West?Moreover, these translated books are all classical Chinese books that Westerners cannot understand. Since the West is stronger in science and technology than China, why don't they travel thousands of miles and travel to bring these Chinese books back to the West?
Another example, in 1578, the Spanish missionary Lada purchased a batch of Chinese books during his stay in Fuzhou, brought them to the Philippines, translated them into Spanish by local Chinese, and shipped them all back to Spain. The collection of Chinese books covers history, geography, astronomy, chronology, navigation, medicine, mathematics, architecture, calligraphy, divination, criminal law, biography and so on. According to incomplete statistics, there were about 800 missionaries in China during the Ming and Qing dynasties. If a missionary brings back 100 Chinese books from the West, then 800 people will have 80,000 books, and the number is much greater than that. As of 2015, the Library of Congress has a collection of more than 50,000 rare ancient Chinese books and more than 60,000 volumes of local chronicles of China. It's just a library of ancient Chinese books in the West, and there are other libraries, museums, universities, and so on in the West, which is really unimaginable. It can be seen that the number of ancient Chinese books transmitted to the West is staggering.
Third, "Heavenly Creations" was introduced to the West in the 17th century, but such a flourishing Chinese science and technology book only had some chapters translated into Western in the 19th century, and it was not until the 20th century that the whole book was translated into Western. It's kind of incredible!Papermaking, agricultural technology, silkworm technology, steelmaking technology, and so on in the Western century are not as good as China's, so why is it that such a book on China's science and technology has been introduced to the West and translated into Western for more than 100 years?Even if an illiterate person sees such a highly technical Chinese book, he will understand its value. The missionaries were also considered cultural people, and they brought the "Heavenly Creations" to the West, didn't he explain the importance of this book to their masters?In addition, do many Western machinery and technologies learn from the situation of "Heavenly Creations"?Why is it that the history of the development of Western machinery technology can hardly see the shadow of Chinese science and technology?It is important to know that technology and culture will influence each other, and it is impossible that only Western technology will affect China, and Chinese science and technology will not affect the WestThis obviously does not make logical sense, and it obviously contradicts the fact that Western missionaries are so fond of moving Chinese books to the West.
Excuse me, is there any Westerner who can explain these questions to me?